algU promoters. AZD6244 purchase The activities of the promoter fusions were measured by β-galactosidase activity as described in Methods. Alginate production is reduced in the mucE mutant compared to PAO1 Expression of mucE can cause alginate overproduction [9]. However, we wondered if mucE would affect A-769662 cost transcriptional activity at P algU and P algD promoters. In order to determine this, both pLP170-P algU and pLP170-P algD with each promoter fused to a promoterless lacZ gene were conjugated into PAO1 and PAO1VE2, respectively. As seen in Additional file 1: Figure S1, the activity of P algU (PAO1VE2 vs. PAO1: 183,612.04 ± 715.23 vs. 56.34 ± 9.68 Miller units) and P algD (PAO1VE2 vs PAO1: 760,637.8 ± 16.87 vs. 138.18 ± 9.68 Miller units) was significantly increased in the mucE over-expressed strain PAO1VE2. Although, Qiu et al. [9] have reported that AlgU is required for MucE induced mucoidy, we wanted to know whether

MucE is required for AlgU induced mucoidy. As seen in Additional file 1: Figure S2, we did not observe that the over-expression of MucE induced mucoidy in PAO1ΔalgU. This result is consistent with what was Liothyronine Sodium previously reported by Qiu et al.[9]. However, the alginate production induced by AlgU was decreased in the mucE knockout strain. The alginate production induced by AlgU in two isogenic strains, PAO1 and PAO1mucE::ISphoA/hah is 224.00 ± 7.35 and 132.81 ± 2.66 μg/ml/OD600, respectively (Additional file 1: Figure S2). These results indicate that alginate overproduction in PAO1 does not require MucE. However, MucE can promote the activity of AlgU resulting in a higher level of alginate production in PAO1 compared to the mucE knockout. Previously, Boucher et al.[19] and Suh et al.[20] have reported that sigma factors RpoN and RpoS were involved in alginate regulation. In order to determine whether mucE induced mucoidy was also dependent on other sigma factors besides AlgU, pHERD20T-mucE was conjugated and over-expressed in PAO1ΔrpoN, PAO1rpoS::ISlacZ/hah and PAO1rpoF::ISphoA/hah. The results showed that the mucE induction caused mucoid conversion in PAO1rpoS::ISlacZ/hah and PAO1rpoF::ISphoA/hah when 0.